LDP receives 700 million yen in donations as ‘reward’ from nuclear power industry

November 28, 2015

Corporations in the nuclear power industry in 2014 donated more than 700 million yen to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, which is subservient to the industry’s demand to restart idled nuclear reactors and promote the export of nuclear technology. This was recently revealed in a government report.

According to the 2014 Political Fund Report that the Internal Affairs Ministry released on November 27, the LDP’s political funds organization received a total of 710 million yen in donations from 60 member companies of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum which consists of utilities, nuclear reactor manufacturers, and other nuclear power-related corporations.

Among nuclear reactor makers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry donated 33 million yen to the LDP and Toshiba and Hitachi 29 million yen each. Electric power companies gave donations to the ruling party through their subsidiaries. The amounts of political donations to the LDP from the subsidiaries of Kansai Electric Power Company and Chugoku Electric Power Company were 4 million yen and 1.1 million yen respectively.

The Abe government is placing importance on restarting idled nuclear power plants and increasing export of nuclear reactors as part of its economic development strategy.
The government gave a green light to the restart of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in the Kyushu region in defiance of strong public opposition and is now intending to put the Ikata NPP in the Shikoku region back online.

Regarding nuclear technology export, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has vigorously conducted sales promotion activities during his tours abroad. Japan concluded nuclear cooperation agreements with Turkey and the United Arab Emirates and is now negotiating for a similar agreement with India, which is a nuclear weapons state.